The 14th Annual Muzzle Awards

[Ian David]

The 14th Annual Muzzle Awards
Our annual look at the dishonorable enemies of free speech and personal liberty in New England

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PAUL LEPAGE
BUFFOONISH CENSORSHIP OF MURAL EMBARRASSES MAINE

It was a self-inflicted embarrassment that garnered national mockery. In March, Governor PAUL LEPAGE ordered that a 36-foot-long mural on Maine's labor history be removed from the state's Department of Labor. The grounds: it was too pro-labor.

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DEAN ESSERMAN
HIS OFFICERS HARASS ACTIVISTS FOR LEAFLETING ON PUBLIC WAY

If the First Amendment protects anything, it surely protects the right to stand peacefully on a public sidewalk and hand out leaflets protesting a political appointment.

But it didn't protect Judith Reilly and Oscar Lemus on February 2, 2010. At 6:30 pm on that day, according to a lawsuit filed by Reilly in federal court, the two activists with the Olneyville Neighborhood Association were handing out fliers outside the Providence Career and Technical Academy, where then-mayor (now congressman) David Cicilline was about to deliver his "State of the City" address. The fliers objected to Cicilline's reappointment of Stephen Durkee to the City Planning Commission at a time when Durkee was being investigated for a possible ethics violation.

More:
http://thephoenix.com/Boston/news/123120-14th-annual-muzzle-awards/?page=4#TOPCONTENT